Monday, October 7, 2013

Review- Metallica/ Through The Never (Music From The Motion Picture)

Metallica/
Through The Never (Music From The Motion Picture)
(Blackened, 2013)

I
hate my money. There is no other reason that I bought this double
live album. Maybe I bought it due to some perverse loyalty to my
adolescence. Maybe I bought it out of habit (Oh, a new Metallica
album? Okay.) Maybe I bought it because it was only 10 bucks. I
did not buy that Lou Reed Lulu album...I don't hate my money
that much, man.

The
last time that I saw Metallica live they were a bloated, dumbed down
“alternative/hard music” arena Rock band. See kids, Metal was as
dead as a doornail in the mid-90s, so Metal bands all changed their
sounds and styles trying to appeal to Alternative kids. Terms like
“hard music” and “heavy Rock” were bandied about. Metal had
become “the M word”, as my friends and I used to say at the time.
By the Load era they were slow and lethargic live, playing
songs like Creeping Death a step or two slower. It was
pathetic. Their live shows had become boring and predictable, their
setlists stuck in a rut with a one or two rotating spots a night, and
of course, the extra song if you bothered to sell out the venue for
them that night. Fuckers.

All
of this brings us to this live album. They actually tried to play
fast on the old stuff. I was surprised. James' vocals are something
of a caricature of his old style, the result of a middle aged
multi-multimillionaire trying to sound pissed off. His between song
banter is embarrassing, the whole “Metallica family” schtick.
Come on! James blocks hikers from going through his acres in San
Francisco, Lars has a multimillion dollar house carved into the side
of a mountain in San Francisco...believe me, these guys have nothing
in common with their audience.

I
was pleased to see Ride The Lightning and Hit The Lights
in the setlist. This live album skews older, with a handful of post
'80s songs included. Surprisingly, only one Death Magnetic
song made the cut, and it was the worst one, Cyanide. That has
the cheesiest, clunkiest bass line out of any Metallica song. I
enjoyed most of the performances on this album, and found myself
getting caught up in things here or there. Almost enough to make me
kinda almost want to see them live again someday.